It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and we’ve all got our fingers crossed for snow.
Here are our favourite paintings of winter wonderlands – and yes, we know, a LOT of them are by the Impressionists. They just did snowscapes so well.
Gustave Caillebotte’s View of rooftops (Effect of snow)
Ah to be in Paris for a snow day… Despite being pretty much grey and brown throughout, this work has such a sense of elegance and peace: just what we want for Christmas.
Winslow Homer’s The Fox Hunt
This is Homer’s largest painting, and many say his best. Even though we see the panicking fox being chased through the snow by angry crows, we can’t help but be dazzled by the deep blues and greens and blinding pure snow of the landscape.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Skaters in the Bois de Boulogne
What wouldn’t we give to be ice-skating on a frozen-over Seine right now? Renoir infamously hated the cold, so this is one of his few paintings made outdoor during the winter: bah, humbug!
Claude Monet’s The Magpie
Isn’t this just the ideal view to wake up to on Christmas morning? Monet loved to make multiple paintings based on the same subjects (like his Waterlilies), and this work is one of over 140 paintings he made of snowy landscapes.
Caspar David Friedrich’s Winter Landscape 1811
While it looks like your typical snowscape at first glance, when we look closer we see a man resting against the rocks, hands folded in prayer and looking up at a wooden cross. We also see that he’s dropped his crutches on his way to pray. This painting captures the Christian significance of Christmas.
Vincent Van Gogh’s Landscape with Snow
This is thought to be one of the first paintings Van Gogh made when he moved to Arles. We love how it shows the vibrant colours of the earth as they peep through melting snow.
Henry Raeburn’s The Skating Minister
This painting shows the Church of Scotland minister Robert Walker. It has become one of Scotland’s most beloved works of art since it’s re-popularisation in the mid 1900s.
George Wesleys Bellows’ Love of Winter
George Bellows loved the snow, and was very disappointed when the typical January snow didn’t fall in New York in 1914. However, he got lucky in February with a major blizzard, and depicted this joyful scene. The red, green, and yellow clothes add such a festive flair to the work.
Robert Henri’s Snow in New York
Rather than capturing the glamour of a snowy NYC avenue, in this painting Henri shows us a much more humble side street. We love this much more relatable scene, which still manages to get us in the festive spirit.
Author: Verity Babbs
